Black: Pikmin that illuminate caverns sounds like a good idea, but the thing is, Pikmin 2 and 3 feature dark places and the pikmin don't fear them at all. In fact, the yellow pikmin in Pikmin 3 are *minor spoiler* discovered inside a cave.

There's also the matter of the captains' light. What I think would be neat is if their light was a specific wavelength that made it easier to navigate misty / smoggy areas, or even reveal objects that would otherwise be hidden. A former friend of mine came up with an idea of a lantern pikmin that would expose a camouflaging enemy with its light. Also, I don't think the bulb is really necessary. All seven pikmin have the leaf-bud-flower package, and I don't think bioluminescent version of those plants would be out-of-place.

Maroon: Well balanced, but they've reintroduced bomb rocks in Pikmin 3. X( Also, I think the fact that they don't always respond to whistles would get irritating after awhile. The winged pikmin take longer to whistle depending on how high they're flying, so I think I similar approach would work with maroons. They'd just need to hear the entire length of the whistle instead of it being a hit and miss.

Do you have a DeviantART account, by any chance?

The Drone chapter 7 . 7/8/2013

Here is an idea Bomb Rock Pikmin, They look like Rock Pikmin but textured like Bomb Rocks. When you throw them they explode but not all the way, they will kinda look like an apple core untill you regenerate them with Nitro Spray, which comes from Doom Barries (you can texture them).

Bomb Rock Pikmin can be thrown by Orange Pikmin and just die when they die. B.R. Pikmin come from Explosive Candypop Buds, they are black with large orange vains and after they spit out the Pikmin they blow up and that makes the B.R. Pikmin come out of the ground by them selfs. And unlike any other Pikmin you can only have 10 Bomb Rock Pikmin out at a time.

Orange: Mmm... Not so sure about these. They overshadow red pikmin completely, and the bomb-rock carrying creates a minor plot-hole as to why the yellows can't do it anymore.

Cyan: Excellent! Your slipping mechanic is actually feasible, and the Onion diving into the water was pure genius! I'm not sure how the Onion (or even the cyans) would translate to warmer regions, but it was very imaginative.

Brown: Interesting concept, disturbing design. I'm seeing some similarities to termites, so I think you could play that up a bit more, especially since the "only pikmin that can destroy barriers made of X and enemies covered in X" formula has been canonized by rock pikmin.

Would you be interested in visiting V Rex's Spored forum? We haven't had much activity lately, and two of the regulars are busy with real-life affairs.

Nice! The descriptions were good, and I also like how the green onion was already activated when Olimar found it. I like the idea of pikmin going against a sludgy substance, but to help differentiate it more from water, I'd recommend making it so that the greens can not only survive mud but also clear it out. I also find it a little odd how you mentioned that mud dissolves pikmin, only to say later that they slowly drown in it. The vine climbing seems like a bit of a stretch, since pikmin can already climb branches and spiderworts, but swinging across gaps is a nice touch.